Health Care Representatives Meet in Oakland to Discuss Plans to Cover Uninsured Californians
More than 200 representatives from public health departments, community clinics, health care unions and insurers met in Oakland yesterday to "fine-tune" nine proposals for providing health insurance to the seven million uninsured Californians, the Oakland Tribune reports. The meeting, sponsored by the Library/California Research Bureau and the Health and Human Services Agency, was convened to incorporate public feedback into proposals formulated by health care professionals for the "Health Care Options Project," a program approved by state legislators two years ago that will use $1.2 million in state and federal money. The meeting is the third of four held across the state. The final meeting will take place today in Manhattan Beach. The finished proposals will be presented to Gov. Gray Davis (D) and the Legislature later this year (Bohan, Oakland Tribune, 2/8). The following options for expanding coverage were discussed at yesterday's meeting:
- The Healthy California Program, which would provide universal coverage by offering all citizens and legal residents a choice between public or private providers;
- The Managed Care Expansion Program, which would gradually expand public managed care programs for low-income, uninsured residents;
- The California PacAdvantage Premium Program, which would expand existing health coverage for uninsured families;
- The Single Payer Health Program in California, which would create a single-payer system to cover all state residents;
- Cal-Health, which would increase eligibility for subsidized coverage to those earning 250% of the poverty level;
- Choice, which would target working residents in families eligible for, but not enrolled in, public health programs and others with employer, individual and family plans;
- Cal-Cure, which would establish public-private partnerships and use more efficient administration to offer universal coverage while keeping costs down;
- The California Health Service Plan, which would establish a publicly owned and financed health care system using state-employed providers; and
- The "Insure the Uninsured Project," which would expand Medi-Cal and Healthy Families (California Healthline, 1/25).
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